The ZTE Axon 7 is no longer available for buying in the U.S. as it has gone out of stock. When a Redditor got in touch with ZTE’s customer service department to enquire on the restocking of Axon 7, he was told that it “will not be available for sale going forward.” The Axon 7 is a year and a half old now and since the Chinese firm had recently tweeted that it will be releasing a successor phone its 2016 flagship, the rumor mill is now speculating that the company may be preparing the launch of the rumored ZTE Axon 8 smartphone.

ZTE’s official US e-store is no longer selling the Axon 7. However, it is still available for purchase in limited quantities on Amazon through a third-party seller. The device is now listed as “Discontinued” on GearBest. The ZTE Axon 7 features a 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, 20-megapixel rear camera, 8-megapixel selfie camera and 3,250mAh battery.

In June, a device speculated as ZTE Axon 8 was spotted on GFXBench as ZTE A2018. The GFXBench listing had revealed that it features Snapdragon 821 and 128 GB storage, but most of the other specs were same as Axon 7. In May, the ZTE A2018 was also spotted on TENAA with dual rear cameras featuring a 20-megapixel sensor and a 12-megapixel sensor. It had also revealed that the smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 821 chipset.

Read More: Get the ZTE Axon 7 flagship $20 off on Gearbest (coupon)

Apart from the above mentioned GFXBench and TENAA listing, there is no fresh information available on the alleged ZTE Axon 8 smartphone. Hence, we will have to wait more for details to surface to confirm the existence of the Axon 8.

(source|via 1, 2)

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ZTE is rumored to be working on a successor version of ZTE Axon 7 as a device from the company bearing a model number of A2018 has appeared on GFXBench benchmarking platform. The ZTE A2018 is speculated to launch as ZTE Axon 8.

According to GFXBench listing of ZTE A2018, the device features a 5.5-inch display that supports QHD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. It is powered by Snapdragon 820 chipset that includes a 2.1 GHz quad-core processor and Adreno 530. The Snapdragon 820 chipset had powered several flagship phones in 2016 such as Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5, LG V20, OnePlus 3, HTC 10 and more.

The Snapdragon 820 chipset on ZTE Axon 8 is coupled with 4 GB of RAM. It will be coming with an internal storage of 128 GB. It will have a 12-megapixel rear snapper that will carry support for 4K video shooting. For shooting selfies, it will have an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The ZTE A2018 is running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow that is overlaid with ZTE’s own skin.

Since the ZTE A2018 has appeared on the benchmarking site, it seems that the company is testing the prototype of the upcoming ZTE Axon 8 before announcing it. Most of the new smartphones from known companies are releasing with Nougat OS. Hence, it is likely that ZTE could be using Marshmallow OS mainly for testing purpose and the Axon 8 may actually release with Nougat OS.

Read More: ZTE Nubia Z17 Hands On: Bezel-less Dual Camera Beauty!

It is interesting to note that even the ZTE A2018 is a successor of Axon 7, the specs like 5.5-inch QHD screen, SD 820 chip, 4 GB RAM that are available on the alleged Axon 8 is also available on the Axon 7. In May, the ZTE A2018 had appeared on TENAA, it revealed that the smartphone features a dual rear camera system that includes a 20-megapixel sensor and a 12-megapixel sensor.

However, the device that showed up on TENAA was powered by Snapdragon 821, a revised edition of SD 820. The SD 821 is present in some of the newer phones such as Google Pixel, Pixel, LG G6 and HTC U Ultra. Since the ZTE Axon 7 was announced in May 2016, It seems that the Chinese company would be announcing the ZTE Axon 8 very soon. Speculations also indicate that since it is not a major upgrade over ZTE Axon 7, the device will launch as ZTE Axon 7s.

(source|via)

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ZTE released the Axon 7s a few weeks ago but it doesn’t qualify as their flagship device for 2017. It’s not because it is powered by last year’s Snapdragon 821 but rather because it was released quietly, almost escaping our radar. So when we learnt a new ZTE phone was spotted on TENAA, we were excited but after taking a look at the specs of the ZTE A2018, we are left wondering what the company is playing at.

The ZTE A2018 (definitely not the final name) on first sight, looks a lot like the ZTE Axon 7s. They can even pass for the same device. The stereo speakers share have an identical design and the dual rear cameras and fingerprint scanner are positioned exactly the same.  Both phones also have the same 2K OLED display. Where the ZTE A2018 differs is in its internals.

The A2018 is powered by an unspecified 2.15GHz quad-core processor. Some say it is the Snapdragon 820 but while it is unusual for ZTE to under-clock their processors, we want to believe it is the Snapdragon 821. It just doesn’t make any sense to release a phone with a Snapdragon 820 phone in 2017. There is 4GB of RAM paired with 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB of  ROM with support for storage expansion.

READ MORE: ZTE’s Axon 7 Latest Update Brings Night Mode, 256GB Storage Support & Others

The dual rear cameras on the ZTE A2018 are the same 20MP + 12MP dual combination as the Axon 7s though they have a 1.5x optical zoom. The front facing camera is an 8MP sensor and there is a 3320mAh battery under the hood. The phone measures 151.7 × 75 × 7.7mm, weighs 170g and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Since the ZTE A2018 has gotten its TENAA certification, the launch should not be far off. However, we think the phone is another variant of the Axon 7s and not necessarily a different phone entirely.

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